Julia Donaldson and Sharon King-Chai

 

Recently I have seen a few requests on Facebook forums asking for books to gift a young child or books for a baby gift or books that could be keepsakes.  I think these three books are so perfect. Julia Donaldson is a master with language and Sharon King-Chai produces exquisite art.

These books have flaps and die cuts (holes) and richly coloured illustrations. You can buy hardcover or paperback editions. If you can buy all three books they would be a beautiful gift. 

Counting creatures is indeed a counting book but it also introduces a young child to the names we use for animal babies - all told in gentle rhyme with a repeated refrain - 'Who has more babies that that?' You can see inside this book here.

The wild dog has four pups; the owl has five owlets; the arctic hare has seven leverets; the turkey has fifteen poults; and the frog has twenty-five tadpoles.

Then there is the delicious language: the cubs are tottering, swaying, pouncing and playing; the pups are nosing and nestling, writhing and wrestling; and the baby mice are pattering, pawing, nibbling and gnawing.

Sharon King-Chai says: The paperback cover for a rich and beautiful counting book full of gorgeous baby animals, with shaped pages, flaps and fold-outs - the cover was designed to be more seasonally appropriate as it is publishing in the spring (the hardback was autumn) and to include a die-cut flap.

See inside Colours, Colours everywhere here. 

See inside Animalphabet here. I talked about Animalphabet back in 2019.

 

Where's my Jumper? by Nicola Slater

A super-cute, super-fun book with flaps, die-cut pages, and a counting element too. Read it Daddy

My friend at Kinderbookswitheverything has a library display of knitting books and I spied this one with such an appealing cover. Take a look at her Pinterest of Yarn Yarns. 

"Rudy loved his pink jumper. It was a little bit short and showed his tummy. But it was his favourite. Then one Monday he woke up and it had gone!"

Rudy runs through the house desperate to find his jumper. His house is filled with creatures of all kinds - ten cats, nine llamas, eight piglets, seven dogs, six blackbirds, five sea creatures (in the blow up pool), four mice, three crocs, and two foxes but no one has his jumper. Where could it be? Turn one more page, lift one more flap and it is found. But what will Rudy do?

Sadly this book is out of print but you might find a copy a second hand copy - the board book (my was the hardcover edition) looks especially worth finding. 

My superhero by Chris Owen illustrated by Moira Court

My super hero will be one book I read aloud to Kindergarten this year. I enjoy reading books with a repeated refrain so the young children can join in with the story telling and I know everyone will enjoy the flaps!

In this story the narrator attempts to define the superhero.  "Some superheroes have the knack of tying knots in railway tracks or leaping in a single bound the tallest office blocks around."

In all there are nine definitions but our narrator's experience of his own superhero are quite different and these differences are announced throughout the book with the idea that the reader might try to guess the identity of this superhero.

KABOOM!
KABAM!
KAPOW!
KASPLAT!

The author and illustrator of My super hero are both newly arrived English migrants which is odd only because this book is a celebration of our Australian Numbat.

Here is an excellent set of teaching notes.